Advantages and risks of internalizing corporate charity and CSR: A theoretical account of CSR governance modes

Novo Nordisk created the charity program Changing Diabetes in Children (CDiC) in 2009 to provide diabetes care to children and adolescents in low-and-middle income countries. While the programme is a partnership programme, it is embedded in the Novo Nordisk organization. Another large pharmaceutical company in the diabetes industry, Eli Lilly, has chosen to ‘outsource’ its corporate philanthropy related to access to diabetes medicine for children to the organization Life for a Child (LFAC). This raises the question why the two organizations have adopted such different governance modes.

This briefing note provides theoretical insights into this question by combining corporate social responsibility literature with literature on efficiency of organizational modes. The note concludes by developing an analytical framework that can guide an analysis of corporate governance of charity.